The First Five Years Fund is dedicated to increasing federal investment in high-quality early learning and care programs for disadvantaged children from birth to age five. We aim to help elevate early childhood education as a priority for the nation, garnering bipartisan support and contributing to improvements in funding and quality.
In recent years Congress has passed bipartisan legislation to support early learning and development, including the 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act. These pieces of legislation incorporated important steps to improve quality, access to, and results of early learning programs. But to realize their potential, Congress must ensure that early learning programs are properly and sufficiently funded through appropriations to accomplish the goals and activities authorized by law.
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Learning and development begin long before a child enters a classroom for the first time. As children’s first and most important teachers, parents play the primary role in supporting children’s early learning and development. Voluntary home visiting programs, like those funded through the federal MIECHV program, pair at-risk families looking for additional support and mentoring with trained home visitors such as nurses, social workers, and educators. Home visitors meet with families at home and work with parents, from pregnancy through their child’s kindergarten entry, to help lay the foundation for the health, education, development, and economic self-sufficiency of the entire family.
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Child care is a necessity for low-income and working parents, yet the cost of quality care often places it out of reach for these families. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) recognizes that access to quality child care can make a powerful difference in children’s development and families’ well-being. This program provides federal funding for states to offset the cost of child care for low-income families with children under age 13, and supports state-level activities to improve the quality of child care available to families. CCDBG makes it possible for families to access child care who otherwise could not afford it.
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In late 2015, Congress passed the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), reauthorizing the nation’s preeminent education law. ESSA prioritizes equal access to education and closing opportunity gaps, and now for the first time, Congress has incorporated early learning across the law.
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As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015, Congress incorporated early learning across the law and established an important new initiative, the Preschool Development Grants program. Earlier versions of the nation’s main education law have long allowed grantees to use federal education funds to support early learning investments as part of a larger strategy for improving educational equity or outcomes. The inclusion of the Preschool Development Grants, however, marks the first time that Congress established a program within the law explicitly focused on promoting access to high-quality early childhood education.
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Head Start is a federally funded program that delivers comprehensive early learning, health, nutrition and family support services to 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children living in poverty and their families. Early Head Start (EHS) provides intensive, comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income infants and toddlers under age 3, pregnant women, and their families.
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Early Head Start—Child Care Partnerships (EHS—CCP) are an innovative model that builds on the existing strengths of Early Head Start and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies to expand access to high-quality child care and comprehensive supports for low-income infants and toddlers.
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The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program plays a crucial role in offering relief to low-income families for their child care expenses. TANF helps states to break the cycle of poverty through quality early childhood programs that support children’s development, while allowing parents to enter or return to the workforce.
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Policymakers in Washington negotiate and advance federal policies that directly support quality early childhood education opportunities, whether through innovative partnerships with states and communities like Preschool Development Grants, or through programs that directly benefit families like the Child Care Development Block Grants Program. But there are other opportunities, policies and legislation in Congress that fall outside of the core federal programs and policies that can support families with young children.